A strong premise of "Embracing the Mystery" is that the force, presence or consciousness that we call God is---like all of creation---in a process of constant change. God is expanding and contracting, growing and remaining still, birthing and dying, emerging and withdrawing, in similar cycles to the natural world, God's creation, of which we are all a part. In other words, that God is a participant in an endless process of "becoming," as is all of creation.

And, just as we reveal different aspects of ourselves to different people at different times in our lives, I pose the question that God-nature reveals itself at different times, in different ways, to many people of different cultures and lands.

Like the story of the blind men touching various parts of an elephant and believing they understand "elephant," we may be touching parts of God-nature and mistaking one aspect for the whole...when the whole is greater, more complex and mysterious than science or religion can yet declare.

Something about this possibility takes me to my growing edge, and asks that I be ready, always, for God-nature to reveal itself in ways that completely surprise, perhaps unsettle or even unnerve, me. I call these encounters with God-nature "holy surprises."

As we tell our many stories of direct. personal encounters with the Sacred Mystery, we create a body of anecdotal experience encouraging other seekers to "re-imagine" God. Letting go of old constructs that served people of faith in other times, and allowing ourselves to encounter God in fresh ways---on God's terms and timing---may be the call to the people of our time.

What are your experiences of encountering the Mysterious One, and how have they shaped or changed you? How do you imagine they might also have shaped or changed God?

"For god is nothing other than the eternally creative source of our relational power, our common strength, a god whose movement is to empower, bringing us into our own together, a god whose name in history is love."


-Reverend Carter Heyward